St. Paul daily globe., 1887-11-21
THE PRIESTS WORK.
Bishop Ireland breaches at the
CathedraI---CathOlic Work in St.
Paul

Bishop Ireland breaches at the
CathedraI---Catholic Work in St.
Paul.
Bishop Ireland delivered the sermon
at high mass at the cathedral yesterday.
He took for his text the words, The
harvest is indeed great, but the harvest
ers are few" The bishop said:
Men being composed of soul and
body. of material and spiritual natures,
God offers to them salvation and the
means of obtaining salvation harmOni-
Gus with this double nature. He could,
of course. had such been His will, speak
directly to the soul, but in this manner
He would be passing over our material,
sensitive natures; He would not be
treating man as whole, nor would He
be dealing with him according to the
laws of his being. When the Son of
God was to offer TO us salvation He as
sumed cur natures. The incarnation of
God was signal as sto the manner in
which God himself would deal with us,
the divine acting through the human.
Consequently when Christ was about to
withdraw fIOm the eyes of men, He left
IamOng them substitutes, men chosen
sfrOm among his fellow men, with whom
and through whom he would act and so
continue the work begun in the incar-
RatiOn. He appointed a priesthood,
linen commissioned to speak and teach
kand administer the SacramentS in his
3ame. This was the institution of the
IEhriStian priesthood, body of men act
ling in Gods name and with His author
aty, but acting in human way, reach
Hng the soul through the senses. God
Ecould have appointed angels TO do this
work, but it would not have been in
4eeping with our human natures, hence
Ehe chose
Z TO RELY ON MEN.
We notice then the two parts, the hu-
aman and divine. First the divine, with
Dut which all the human powers and
Halents were unavailing. Men coming
swith nothing but their own authority
scOuld make some little show of philO-
tSophical reasoning, but in the question
IOf unlocking the portals of
Paradise, God alone can deal.
tAnd the absurdity of absurdities is this,
when men. relying simply on human
authority. present themselves as minis
tiers of eternal life. Only men with
Goods power have the right to offer the
EmeanS of obtaining salvation. And this
Us the glory of the Catholic church.
RTherefore, when those men come before
Gus it matters not so much who or what
Hhey are; the vital question is this: Are
EtheSe men the legal successors of those
,Of whom Christ said: ''As the Father
Ehas sent ME, so also | send YOU" Are
EtheSe men links in the mystical chain
s6panning eighteen centuries, the first
Pink resting in the hand of the Savior
land the last in the hand of the present
Epontiff at Rome? The history of the
fCathOlic church is before the world.
tEvery page speaks plainly. 1t is the
EohUrol, Of fhn colo ab1lral, hot
EcOuld in any way have come down from
lUhriSt; the sole institution of to-
Eday that connects the nineteenth
kcentury with the first century.
EiThe priests are the agents of God, and
kwhen the agent acts within the limits of
1.-THE agency his actions bear the approval
sOf such agency. Therefore when the
kprieSt aScendS the altar and tells us that
sthe bread and wine thereon are changed
AntO the body and blood of Christ, our
faith marvelS not. When in the tri-
and says, Il forgive yOu," we marvel
mot; and so with all the SacramentS of
the church. The Scriptures say. ''Give
us great and numerous priesthood" !"
The needs for such at present are nu-
merOuS. There are many places where
there are no priests, no sacrifice, no
mention of the Word of God. In places
where there should be 100 priests, We
find twenty, ten and sometimes none at
saIl. In the first part of the present cen
fury the
CATHOLIC IMMIGRATION
to America was so great that it was al
most impossible to provide for their
sspiritual care. During this time but
tlittle attention could be paid to any
particular parish. Things have changed
since then, so that to-day the priest
mood is quite numerous. Still there are
snot enough. The diocese of st. Paul
Ehas increased from twenty priests in
Ethe year 1851 to 200 to-day. Yet even
lin this diocese there are many settle
kments where there are no priests;
gthere are places that receive only oc-
fcaSional visits. You think you have
abundant clergy in st. Paul. There is
mo place in the country better off in
this respect, but still, if we had more
priests we could begin religious
works we dare not think of
al present. Death calls them
away; sickness comes and it becomes
necessary to supply the wants. Priests
I uSt have time for deep study, for
when ordained the work of study only
b. ,inS. We want TO see our priests do
> more than ordinary routine work,